Singapore furniture

I was inspired to do a wash basin for my toilet for quite some time already. I made the side, a little bit of the top; various parts were lying in my workshop at various degree of completion. The kick in the butt came when my neighbor living on the floor below me complained that my toilet floor was leaking. I needed to hack previous sink for the renovation.I can’t be living without a sink in the toilet, so I had to get my act together to finish this piece of art.

This piece is made of Burmese teak, which I read is used to make boats. The cabinet and doors are frame and panel construction. The joints are glued with titebond 3 and held with screws which are then covered by Ebony square pegs. Ebony square pegs are a hallmark of Green and Greene furniture design. The sink is actually a square box with proud finger joints. The sink sits on a flat top with breadboard end on one side to keep everything flat, Because of the urgency that I needed this piece of furniture, I did not do any cloud lift. The entire piece is finished with 3 layers of epoxy.

I am an occupational therapist working with patients with mental health problems in a psychiatric nursing home.. One of the main problems that the people I work with face is their poor cognition. Their ability to reason in a coherent manner, short term memory, reasoning ability and the ability to learn new task is affected due to their condition of schizophrenia, low IQ, among other diagnosis.

Their cognitive deficits also affect their psychosocial aspects as well. Because they are achieving much less than others, issues such as self esteem, self concept, self efficacy are also a problem. They may see themselves as being unable to achieve anything except whatever to take whatever handouts that the healthcare providers or volunteers give. They say something is too difficult even before they try because they lack the confidence to even try.

After analyzing these problems, I decided to work with them to build a rocking chair. I thought that building a rocking chair would let them see themselves as achievers. Inspiration for the design was gathered from the Maloof Rocking chair and that of the Shaker rocking chair. I did not have a clear design on paper to work with. Instead what I did was to make a plywood model of the rocking chair, test it for comfort, before I sketch the curves on the plywood. After one side is done, my friendly router bit did the work of shaping the other side, using the first side as a template.

My patients did the sanding, lots of it. One or two of them help to drive in the screws during assembly. All of them felt that they contributed to the making of the chair in some way and they were all smiles when they sat on the chair and started rocking. One of them was heard exclaiming, “we succeeded, we succeeded!”

While the material cost of the rocking chair is really cheap (S$65), the amount of self esteem it brings to the patients is through the roof. Woodworking is indeed a good activity for patients with mental health issues.

The above are clearer pictures of the baptismal font that I made in my previous post: Easter Church Furniture. A bowl is placed on top of the table to collect the water.

Plans are underway to improve the table such as a self draining wooden bowl to match the table. Front and side pannels with baptismal related icons (dove coming down onto water) are also in the plans. So stay tune.

It is a table approx 33 inches in height and a diameter of 14 inches. The difference from previous stool design (the prototype) is that the legs are an inch larger than the diameter of the top. The previous design places the legs in the same vertical plane as the top. This design is more stable than the prototype.

I’ve also added cloud lift to the stretchers under the top for visual interest. The bottom stretch was intentionally left flat so that a shelf can be installed in future. The future plan is to add side covering and conceal some form of container to collect the run off water from the self emptying bowl on top.

This prototype will be used in my workshop. It is the prototype for an outdoor stool and table set where two persons can sit down in the evening to chat and have tea. A few lessons can be drawn from the prototype.

The seat is 50cm high (approx 1’8″ high) which may be a little too high for people who are shorter.

The size of the seat at 1 foot seem comfortable.

The legs should extend beyond its circumference to improve stability.

Holes drilled to fasten the seat the the frame needs better consideration. It should be farther away from the post to allow for an electric drill to work the screws. This time, I had to screw it in by hand.

This year’s woodworking workplan include a set of 2 stools and a tea table. Also on my list is a set of bathroom medicine cabinet and vanity. So keep a lookout for my post on my bathroom furniture.

The above photos show the prototype of the stool which I intend to make this year. The actual product will be made of Burmese Teak. The stool measures 45cm (17.7 inches ) high and 35.5 (14inches) in diameter while the table will be 80cm (31.5 inches) high and 50cm (19.5 inches) in diameter .

I would like feedback on the design. Ignore the workmanship and finishing this time. This is only a prototype and I do not intend to waste time sanding and finishing it. The main purpose is to try out the stability and comfort of the final product.

Proud finger joint. I got lazy and omited the square pegs. Will put them in when I feel like it.

In the grand scheme of things

This is a Greene and Greene inspired wall cabinet which I use to house my tools.

I built this with the intention of practicing for a bathroom medicine cabinet. After I built this, I soon realised that it may not be practical for a medicine cabinet. Firstly, I don’t quite like the idea of placing wet toothbrushes inside a cabinet. Secondly, while the mirror is quite big in size (so that I can still see the top half of my body should I grow fat), it cannot be too low down near the tap. So this design and size would probably not do if it’s intended for a medicine cabinet.

Like my other pieces of furniture, I use Kapur wood. The carcass is a meter long while the breath is about 60 centemeters wide. The joints for the carcass is proud finger joints in line with the Greene and Greene theme. They are held by glue and screws. Rightfully, the screw heads are hidden by pegs; but since this is workshop furniture, I got lazy and put off doing the pegs. The shelves are dadoed into the sides. The carcass is held up by wooden bars that are screwed to the top and bottom via pocket holes. These wooden bars are then screwed to the wall.

The shape of the door rails were cut onto plywood to make a template. The wood was then routed on a router table. The rails are held in the stilts with mortise and tennon joinery. To make it stronger, screws are driven into the rails from the sides of the stiles. These are then covered with dowels.

A plywood pannel with white PVC is fitted into the door held by dado. This can be replaced by a mirror in place of the plywood.

A chisel and screw driver rack was then fabricated and fixed into the cupboard. I placed the entire cupboard onto adjustable supports before screwing it to the wall. A sprit level mskes the task more accurate.

Please feel free to leave any comments you like. It helps me learn, and for your benefit, most would agree that teaching others is the best way to learn. So do participate. Type in a line or two, so this blog would be more useful to those who visit.

Breadboard end pegged with white oak. Note the through tennons of the rails.

Handle made from white oak

This coffee table was inspired by the Gamble’s house Side table. In the original piece, the legs are thicker, and the cloud lift of the rail under the drawer is positively downwards. In my piece, the legs are more slender from the front and the cloud lift of the rail under the drawer is negatively upwards. I also have a shelf under the table.

The table is made from Kapur wood which is THE wood for door frames and window still. The top measures 90cm by 45cm. It is held flat by breadboard ends. The pegs are white oak which I think give a good contrast from the brown Kapur wood. Of course I could stain it black but I’ll leave it white for now It’ll probably age to a nice lighter brown.

The bottom shelf is made the same way. Notice that there is a gap all round the sides of the bottom shelf. It kind of gives the feel that the shelf is floating, at least that’s the intent. The shelf is actually secured to two sticks joining both lower rails together.

The legs are of similar shape to the Gamble’s side table. The side rails are held in by mortise and tenon joinery. Maybe I should have pegged those for an improved look, but maybe not; best to keep things simple especially for my first attempt at a Greene and Greene inspired coffee table.

The rails are joined to the sides with through mortise and tenon joints. The end of the tenon and mortises are rounded to give that soft feminine finish usually seen in G&G furniture. These are supposed to be the functional decorations for the sides.

The drawer r using proud finger joints.

Comments are welcome and appreciated.

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Greene and Greene style of woodworking is very special in the sense that, when you take a first glance at it, looks like most other furniture: Simple lines, squarish. It doesn’t yell out at you like earlier styles, such as Queen Ann with lots of carvings or Chippendale with its curves. But when you take a closer look at the details, it’s a whole new world. That was when I was blown away. The magic was really in the details. Simple inlays, cloud lifts, proud pegs, proud finger joints, stuff like that really made the difference.

After reading a few books, I decided to give it a go at designing and making a Greene and Greene inspired furniture. If you read my earlier post, I wrote that I started off furnishing my own flat with Ikea furniture. I decided to make a bookcase to fit under the Ikea table. It would sit at one end facing outwards. That would leave the back exposed, giving me a good reason to finish the back to the same high standard as the front.

I started out milling my lumber and joining two six inches wide board together. Then they go through the planner one more time. I used Kapur as I had a good supply on hand. It’s a tropical hardwood usually used for window still and door frames. They are strong but not as beautiful as say teak, and it comes with a rather economical price tag.

I used a table saw to cut the finger joints. Dado stacks aren’t common in Singapore. I used a sled with a stop at one inch to make two cuts, one on each side of the panel. I moved my stop another inch to cut two inches from the sides. I then slide my panel across the saw blade using my sled as a fence to clear the wood between the two cuts.

The exposed finger joints are then rounded by hand with a rasp, chisel and sandpaper. The edges were rounded using a block plane. One swipe at fourty five degrees and another two rounds off the corners. It was surprisingly fast.

Holes were then drilled into the fingers to take a screw and a wooded plug. The panels were joined with glue and screws. The screw holes were then covered with round wooden pegs. My feel is that it is a lot easier to make round holes than square ones and it doesn’t compromise the aesthetic value of the piece too much. And I certainly wanted something easy to do as this is my first Greene and Greene piece.

I had some problems cutting the rebate on the back. Because of the small edge, my router kept slipping and cutting into the sides which didn’t give me the clean edge that I wanted. I ship-slapped a back on.

My inlay was made from white oak on the base. The based was joined to the main shelf using pocket screws. The finish is wipe on varnish and two layers of wax.

After constructing the shelf, it looks too good to be placed under a cheap Ikea table. The two just didn’t go together. I gave them to my kids, aged 3 and 5 to place their books and jigsaw puzzles.

Do give me your comments. This is my first piece in G&G, so your comments would help me a great deal to improve. I’m now making a coffee table and a wall cabinet. I’ll write them when I finish. In my next blog, I’ll write on a chest of drawers for my tools. Thanks for reading!